: The Microscope by Ross Andrew - Microscopy; Microscopes Microscopy

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THE MICROSCOPE.

BEING THE ARTICLE CONTRIBUTED BY

ANDREW ROSS

TO THE "PENNY CYCLOPAEDIA," PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY FOR THE DIFFUSION OF USEFUL KNOWLEDGE.

FULLY ILLUSTRATED.

NEW YORK: THE INDUSTRIAL PUBLICATION COMPANY. 1877.

THE MICROSCOPE.

So little is known of the early history of the microscope, and so certain is it that the magnifying power of lenses must have been discovered as soon as lenses were made, that there is no reason for hazarding any doubtful speculations on the question of discovery. We shall proceed therefore at once to describe the simplest forms of microscopes, to explain their later and more important improvements, and finally to exhibit the instrument in its present perfect state.

In doing this we shall assume that the reader is familiar with the information contained in the articles "Light," "Lens," "Achromatic," "Aberration," and the other sub-divisions of the science of Optics, which are treated of in this work.

In the case just mentioned the bill would be read with eyes in a very different state of adjustment from that in which it was discovered on the opposite side of the street, but no conviction of this fact would be impressed upon the mind. If, however, the supposed individual should perceive on some part of the paper a small speck, which he suspects to be a minute insect, and if he should attempt a very close approach of his eye for the purpose of verifying his suspicion, he would presently find that the power of natural adjustment has a limit; for when his eye has arrived within about ten inches, he will discover that a further approach produces only confusion. But if, as he continues to approach, he were to place before his eye a series of properly arranged convex lenses, he would see the object gradually and distinctly increase in apparent size by the mere continuance of the operation of approaching. Yet the glasses applied to the eye during the approach from ten inches to one inch, would have done nothing more than had been previously done by the eye itself during the approach from fifty feet to one foot. In both cases the magnifying is effected really by the approach, the lenses merely rendering the latter periods of the approach compatible with distinct vision.

A very striking proof of this statement may be obtained by the following simple and instructive experiment. Take any minute object, a very small insect for instance, held on a pin or gummed to a slip of glass; then present it to a strong light, and look at it through the finest needle-hole in a blackened card placed about an inch before it. The insect will appear quite distinct, and about ten times larger than its usual size. Then suddenly withdraw the card without disturbing the object, which will instantly become indistinct and nearly invisible. The reason is, that the naked eye cannot see at so small a distance as one inch. But the card with the hole having enabled the eye to approach within an inch, and to see distinctly at that distance, is thus proved to be as decidedly a magnifying instrument as any lens or combination of lenses.

This description of magnifying power does not apply to such instruments as the solar or gas microscope, by which we look not at the object itself, but at its shadow or picture on the wall; and the description will require some modification in treating of the compound microscope, where, as in the telescope, an image or picture is formed by one lens, that image or picture being viewed as an original object by another lens.

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